Audit Committee Characteristics, Quality of Disclosure and Proportion of Non-Executive Directors

Audit Committee as one of the key mechanisms of corporate governance can lead to improvement of corporate disclosure quality and capital markets efficiency. Proportions of non-executive directors of the Board are effective on formation of an efficient Audit Committee. So, the aim of this study is to examine the effect of the proportion of non-executive directors on relation between characteristics of audit committee (including financial expertise, size, tenure, and experience) and quality of corporate disclosure of firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The sample includes 71 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period from 2012 to 2013. After collecting data, research hypotheses are tested using software Eviews7. The results show that two characteristics of the Audit Committee (Tenure, and experience) have a significant positive relation with quality of corporate disclosure, but the other characteristics of the audit committee (financial expertise, size) have no significant relation with the quality of corporate disclosure. In addition, the findings of this research indicate that proportion of non-executive directors of the Board has a significant positive effect on the relation between experience of the audit committee and quality of corporate disclosure, but it has no moderating effect on the relation between other characteristics of the audit committee and disclosure quality.